“This state is at the crossroads of America, and the ecosystem of support designed to help it become the Silicon Valley for electric vehicles drove us here,” said Michael Alma, Regional Vice President of Ener1.  “What we found when we arrived was a wealth of qualified people with skills in automotive engineering, electrical engineering, manufacturing, and assembly, who are well qualified to help us build our business.  We also quickly linked into the strong educational system, including schools like Purdue, Indiana University, Ivy Tech, and many others, which will help deliver new talent as the years progress.”

Second, representatives from the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Indiana University’s Indiana Business Research Center, Ivy Tech Community College, Brevini Wind USA, and OrthoWorx Indiana spoke on the panel entitled Developing a Winning Game Plan: Policy Prescriptions for Continued Growth.

“America has the best and most innovative workers, but the challenges of a global marketplace require that skills and training be constantly upgraded,” said Mike Mitchell, Field Coordinator for the Alliance for American Manufacturing.  “We must make investments in our workforce to ensure that they are equipped to meet the ever increasing demand for talented workers.  We need to supply our producers with the engineers, technicians, management, skilled trades, and other specialties so they can invent, commercialize, and run the hi-tech factories at the leading edge.  This investment in people is every bit as critical as the investments we need in infrastructure and productive facilities.”

Video highlights of the summit will be available on Donnelly’s YouTube page later this week.